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I got tired of my bad luck and bought new tires today after blowing ANOTHER one. I've gone through 3 replacements and still had two with a lot of tread, just got sick of it...

We all know the stock tires from mayonnaiseland suck. I replaced those with some Pirelli P7000 which were very bland. Better responding then stock, little better on dry but worse in wet weather. They were a tad louder as well.
I then swapped altogether and moved up to 18's with some wheels. I got Maxxis tires as the were made for touring performance. They were might quiet, had pretty good dry grip and had outstanding wet grip. I can say that after about 15k miles, the dry grip deteriorated badly, and the shoulder wore badly. Wet traction stayed fine at speed, but any traction with the VSA off was totally absent. I could easily liquidate the tires into 2nd...My biggest bi+ch centered on the fact that the tires picked up every ounce of road debris imaginable. Screws, metal pieces--if it was there, I hit it and it stuck. Maybe it was just bad luck, but 3 new tires in less than a year (even with pro-rated road hazard warranty) is a pain in the a$$. This doesn't even cover the 4 or 5 times they've been patched. And no, don't PM me and ask if I live at a nail factory...

I went to my guy today and actually got to test out the Continnental Conti-Extremes. I put about 50 miles on them and drove around in the city the first 5 or 10 just warming them up. They were fair. Turn in wasn't crisp at all. In fact, it felt like my worn Maxxis tires. Dry traction was pretty darn good, but they were a bit loud. Not really loud, but just as loud as my worn tires. It's not raining so I have no idea about wet traction. They were $150 a piece which is cheaper than the Maxxis I had at $176 a piece.

My guy carries Cooper (the new Zeon's looked sweet but the tread rating was 280 and they cost as much as the Maxxis--I would have gotten these as a second choice), Kumho, Sumitumo, Pirelli, Continnental, Michellin, and Nitto. He really pushed me on the Sumi's and they were really cheap at $116. I remembered many posts here about bubbling, and though road hazard was standard, well, I don't want the hassle. I got the Nittos at $127--Nitto 555's in 225/40/18...

OMFG! Holy shi+, Batman! I've driven on performance wheels and tires for 16 years. I've never liked a tire so much. Quiet and I mean REALLY quiet--over 115mph cruising quiet. Responsive--really responsive. And sticky as h=ll! VSA off and a stomp w/o ac on produces barely a chirp before hooking up. No chirp at all into 2nd. The Conti's made a nice, loud chirp and would barely chirp hitting second. Turn in is excellent. It is certainly a summer oriented performance tire in that the design probably isn't the best for water and certainly not snow or ice, but you can really feel the road in the steering wheel and the control and response was seriously perfect for me.

I highly recommend them. To be honest, I thought they were cheapo, ricer tires after looking at ads and stuff, but on the TL-S, man was I wrong. Cheap, sticky, responsive...Very. very nice!

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